comprising North American and Asian interests developing global specifications for ANSI/TIA/EIA-41 Cellular Radio telecommunication Intersystem Operations network evolution to 3G

and global specifications for the radio transmission technologies (RTTs) supported by ANSI/TIA/EIA-41.

3GPP2 was born out of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) International Mobile Telecommunications "IMT-2000" initiative, covering high speed, broadband, and Internet Protocol (IP)-based mobile systems featuring network-to-network interconnection, feature/service transparency, global roaming and seamless services independent of location. IMT-2000 is intended to bring high-quality mobile multimedia telecommunications to a worldwide mass market by achieving the goals of increasing the speed and ease of wireless communications, responding to the problems faced by the increased demand to pass data via telecommunications, and providing "anytime, anywhere" services.

Back in 1998, when serious discussions about working on the IMT-2000 initiative began, it became evident that the goals of globalization and convergence could not be accomplished efficiently using traditional standards-setting processes, often characterized as "too slow" given the speed with which technology was forging ahead. Bodies such as the Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) and Radio Standardization (RAST) helped to forge understanding of issues and work plans among all Participating Standards Organizations (PSOs).

The concept of a "Partnership Project" was pioneered by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) early in 1998 with the proposal to create a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) focusing on Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology. Although discussions did take place between ETSI and the ANSI-41 community with a view to consolidating collaboration efforts for all ITU "family members," in the end it was deemed appropriate that a parallel Partnership Project be established - "3GPP2," which, like its sister project 3GPP, embodies the benefits of a collaborative effort (timely delivery of output, speedy working methods), while at the same time benefiting from recognition as a specifications-developing body, providing easier access of the outputs into the ITU after transposition of the specifications in a Standards Development Organization (SDO) into a standard and submittal via the national process, as applicable, into the ITU.

These SDOs are known as the Project's Organizational Partners (OPs). 3GPP2 requires that a participating individual member company be affiliated with at least one of the Organizational Partners.

In addition, the Project has welcomed Market Representation Partners (MRPs) who offer market advice to 3GPP2 and bring a consensus view of market requirements (e.g., services, features and functionality) falling within the 3GPP2 scope. They are:

Each TSG meets approximately four times per year to produce technical specifications and reports. Since 3GPP2 has no legal status, ownership and copyright of these output documents is shared between the Organizational Partners. The documents cover all areas of the Project's charter, including cdma2000® and its enhancements.

All TSGs report to the Project's Steering Committee, which is tasked with managing the overall work process and adopting the technical specifications forwarded by each of the TSGs.

If you are interested in learning more about 3GPP2, we hope that the pages on this web site will provide you with the details you need. Each Technical Specification Group has its own section on the web site. For information on each of the project's partners, please refer to our 3GPP2 Partners section. For a list of all 3GPP2 participating companies you may refer to the Members section. If your company is listed then you may simply need to contact the 3GPP2 Coordinator to have your name added to any of the e-mail reflector groups. For this and any other questions you may have, please refer to the "Contact Us" section of this site.

3GPP2 provides globally applicable Technical Specifications for a 3rd Generation Mobile System based on the evolving ANSI-41 core network and the relevant Radio Access technologies to be transposed by standardization bodies (Organizational Partners) into appropriate deliverables (e.g., standards). The Secretariat maintains an electronic library of all technical specifications and reports published by 3GPP2, while individual Organizational Partners maintain their own libraries of their standards.

3GPP2 technical specifications and reports are available to the public for free, single-use download, provided the documents will not be reproduced either in part or in entirety.

If you are interested in incorporating 3GPP2 materials (such as text, figures, illustrations, equations) into a publication to be published either in print or electronically, you will need to complete the "Permission to Reproduce 3GPP2 Materials" form.